New Delhi:

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was questioned by the Central Bureau of Investigation twice this week in the alleged liquor policy case. Mr Kejriwal was questioned on Monday by the central probe agency and then again on Tuesday in the Tihar jail for more than an hour.

The Aam Aadmi Party chief is currently in jail in connection with an Enforcement Directorate’s money laundering case arising from the alleged liquor policy case. The Delhi liquor policy 2021-22 was scrapped after the Delhi lieutenant governor ordered a CBI probe into alleged irregularities and corruption involving its formulation and execution.

The questioning of Mr Kejriwal comes just a day ahead of a Supreme Court hearing of the AAP petition against the Delhi High Court order staying the bail granted to the Chief Minister by a trial court.

The trial court had granted bail to Mr Kejriwal on June 20 and ordered his release on a personal bond of Rs 1 lakh. The high court stayed the trial court order on Tuesday, saying the Delhi’s Rouse Avenue Court – “didn’t apply its mind” when granting bail and pointed to what it said were lapses in judgement.

The AAP, meanwhile, alleged a conspiracy involving CBI officers to frame Mr Kejriwal in a “fake case” and get him arrested. The CBI has rejected the accusations.

The Enforcement Directorate or ED had arrested Mr Kejriwal on March 21, shortly after the Delhi High Court refused to grant him protection from arrest on his petition challenging summonses issued to him.

On May 10, the Supreme Court granted interim bail to Mr Kejriwal till June 1 to campaign in Lok Sabha elections, saying he will have to surrender and go back to jail on June 2. He has been in jail ever since.

The ED and the CBI have alleged the Delhi government’s liquor policy for 2021-22 allowed cartelisation and favoured certain dealers who paid bribes for licenses. The AAP has strongly denied the charge.

New Delhi:

The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday searched Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh’s home in Delhi over a money laundering case linked to the liquor policy case that haunts the ruling Aam Aadmi Party.

Mr Singh joins Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, his former deputy Manish Sisodia, Telangana politician K Kavitha, and others in being raided, questioned or arrested, or all three in connection with alleged corruption in the now-withdrawn liquor sales policy introduced by the Delhi government in 2021.

READ | Searches At AAP’s Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh’s House In Delhi Liquor Policy Case

Mr Sisodia was arrested in March and has failed in repeated attempts to get bail.

READ | CBI Explains Why Manish Sisodia Was Arrested After 8-Hour Questioning

Months before today’s raids, a defiant Mr Singh posed next to posters outside his home “welcoming” the Enforcement Directorate; that photo was re-shared on X by the AAP, with fire emojis, this morning.

ED Raids On Sanjay Singh

Today’s raids against Mr Singh comes after he was named by an accused in the case – businessman Dinesh Arora – who later became an ‘approver’, and a font of information for the authorities.

READ | Delhi Liquor Policy Case Explained: Allegations, Investigations, Arrests

Mr Arora was released on bail on August 1.

The agency believes Sanjay Singh arranged the meeting between Dinesh Arora and Manish Sisodia, who has been arrested by both the Enforcement Directorate and the Central Bureau of Investigation.

Mr Sisodia was then the Delhi government’s excise minister.

The Enforcement Directorate, which has filed three chargesheets so far, has never actually named Sanjay Singh as an accused nor summoned him to record a statement. The agency has, however, referred to the AAP leader in its documents – something that sparked a massive row of its own.

A furious Mr Singh claimed a conspiracy to “tarnish” his political credentials and image. He wrote to the Union Finance Secretary (the Enforcement Directorate reports to the Finance Ministry) for permission to prosecute the agency chief for making “false and derogatory claims” against him.

This was after the central agency told the courts one (of four) reference to Mr Singh was a “typographical/clerical error”; the agency said it wanted to name Rahul Singh – then the Delhi excise commissioner – at that place, and that naming Sanjay Singh was an “inadvertent error”.

The AAP, however, alleged Mr Singh’s name has been mentioned in the chargesheet “at the behest of the PMO (Prime Minister’s Office)” to defame the party and its leaders. Mr Singh slammed the agency for conducting “a baseless” probe into the alleged scam.

Arvind Kejriwal Responds

Meanwhile, Delhi Chief Minister and AAP boss Arvind Kejriwal came out in support of his colleague.

READ | “1,000 Searches But Nothing”: Arvind Kejriwal As AAP MP Is Raided

He has accused the Enforcement Directorate of acting on behalf of the BJP (he did not name the party) to target rivals ahead of next year’s general election. Mr Kejriwal also claimed “more than 1,000 raids” had failed to find “a single paise” of illegally acquired money.

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